THE TRAIL 8L AZER THE INDIANAPOLIS HIKING CLUB VOLUME ELEVEN NO . ONE (Happiness - A Step at a Time) HIGHLIGHTS OF THE CLUB YEAR ENDING OCTOBER 1, 1979 Members of the Indianapolis Hiking Club have joined for many reasons . The love of the out- of­ doors is probably the basic desire in so many of us who love to get back to nature. And once in the club, most people have found a friendliness and comradeship not often found in many other organizations .. This edition of the "TRAIL BLAZER" is a chr onicle of the events of the year. And here we have attempted to list and report on the many activities that our members have enjoyed during that time. Our club was organized in January 1957, and we have completed 23 years of growth. Over the years, the club has always adhered to the principle purpose for which it was founded as defined in the club constitution "To encourage a love of nature, through the promotion of outdoor recreation in the form of hikes and outings; and to sponsor other activities in­ cidental to the foregoing". There were 301 paid up members as of the end of the year, and many of them gave active support to the activities sponsored by the club. Take a look at the list of hikes and outings on one of the foll owing pages. All sorts of trails - easy, moderate, and rugged - with quite a variety of leaders. You will note many more Saturday hikes than in previous ye~rs. The officers have endeavored to keep abreast of the desires of the members . ,,,-.... he club has been very fortunate in having good officers, and this past year was certainly no exception. The success of any organization such as ours, depends to a large degree on the people guiding it. The club's activities for the year were led by the following group of very capable people: DIRECTORS COMMITTEE HEADS President . .... Henry Moore Harrison Feldman Membership ..... Win Pulsifer Vice-President .. Mary Kidwell Peggy Franzen Publicity ...... Wilma Thompson Treasurer ... ... Betty Blage Charles Brunette Publications .. Bill Larrison • 4 Secretary . .. .. .. Margaret Woodard Viol a Hill Conservation ... Ted Fields • Pathfinder ...... Marsha Hutchins SOCIAL: Programs ...... Haze l Morrison and Tom Hill Refreshments .. Tony Vita le, Gene & Genie Waltz, Marge Johnson, and Eva Cors NOTE: M.:lrgar et Woodard resigned as secretary because of personal reasons, and Alberta Neill fill ed in for the rest of the year. For the past several years, it has become a tradition f or the club to recognize for special notice, the members who have hiked over 200 miles during the year on scheduled club hikes. There are many in t he club who can not hike this much , for a variety of reasons. Please come out as often as you can, and take the hikes which suit you and which you enjoy. The pleasure of hiking with the club is available each weekend, and we urge all members to take advantage of their club membership by reading the schedul e and coming out on hikes when they can. ,---1so, don't overlook the overnights throughout the year. They are planned with you in mind. nttending the club business and social meetings is a ·good opportunity to contribute to the growth and success of the club. THE TRA IL BIAZER 1979 EDITION THE INDIANAPOLIS HIKING CLUB PAGE 2 SPECIAL HONOR ROLL Miles Miles Miles Cliff Hoard .. • . .••.. 585 Lois Vincent .... ... 37 1 Tony Vi ta l e •• .• • . • • . 241 Tom Patterson . ...... 517 Marsha Hutchins .. ... 369 Frank Thompson . ..... 238 Marge Begeman ...... 510 Ed Chambers .. •.• • . 350 Henry Moore ...• . ... 222 Mary Kidwell . 492 George MacLean .... 344 Bil l Larrison . .. .. 221 Robert Begeman . .. 458 Bonnie Wolfer .. ... 319 Pat Soj a . • .. .... .. 217 Harrison Feldman . ... 437 Hazel Morrison . .... 288 Tom Hil l ... •....... 215 Charles Brunette . .. 436 Bert Roth ....•....... 288 Vi Hill . .• .. .... 204 John Behrmann . .... .. 409 Libby Moore ........ 250 Fred Eckstein . •. .. .. 202 Chris Brunette .. ... 380 Wilma Thompson . .. 249 George Newha ll ...... 377 Peggy Franzen . • ...... 243 As the yea r s go by, there are changes, turning points, and beginnings and endings. And so it was on the evening of April 26th, when a good group turned out for a far ewe ll dinner for Ken and Sy lvia Retherford. The Retherfords had been instrumental in organizing the c lub, and had helped tremendously during t he formative years. Their counsel was a lways good and time ly, and we a ll will miss them, as they move to the state of Washington for retir ement.But a new phase i n their life was opening up, and we all wished them happiness in their plans to hike, backpack, and canoe around the Puget Sound region in t he State of Washington. All of us joined in and sang a farewell song, with the words by Tom Hill. Ken and Sylvia will undoubtedly be visited by many of their good friends they l eft behind. Mar y Kidwe ll's account of som2 of the activities l ast year is both interesting and humorous: "In retrospect our 1978-1979 Hiking Club year was a very good one . Our hikes, as usual, --... covered a l l four seasons. We waded through knee deep snow in the winter, and through many puddles of rain i n the spring, summer, and fall . Insects had a good year, in that they were plentiful. We had mosquito bites, chigger bi tes , and wood ticks held fast. As for animals - we saw some deer, and groundhog, and raccoon. At one time, we bad the privilege of watching some very young raccoon on the side of a wash as they peeked at us from behind a tree . "We watched the snow give way t o the gray of early spring, and fina l ly the emergence of tiny ~ gray- green leaflets and white dogwood, and r edbud, and the multi-colored car pet of wild f l owers under feet. Then the hot summer, which reall y wasn't as hot this year. The flowers changed in slow motion to the summer variety of more yellows and brilliant blues. Fall came all too soon as t he trees gr adually turned from their deep shade-green to gold and yellow and red and orange. Then the l eaves finally let l oose to drop like many colored jewels in front of us, dropping so fast it was like raining jewels. Now we are back to the gray bleakness of winter as we end our year of hiking. "We had such a variety of hikes. Long ones like the Hindostan Falls trail and the Yell ow ­ wood Trail that made us use our energy. Then short ones like the hike around the 500 mi l e racetrack, and the Portland Ar ch hike. There were also many hikes in between that rambled through the beautiful for ests of Indiana . "Our hikes were not without a few mishaps and humor. Mishaps like Sam Lloyd getting stuck axle-deep in the road back to Gallahue - and humor like jumping a creek and l anding in the middle of it. Like leaning against a tree and going dowu at the same time until sitting on the very wet ground . " Then there are the r ock-hounds and fossil collectors, who carry their heavy prizes miles back to the cars." THE TRAIL BLAZER 1979 EDITION THE INDIANAPOLIS HIKING CLUB PAGE 3 Throughout the year. the ~lub has business meetings and club socials. These were well attended last year, and the members enjoyed a varied program as presented by Hazel Morrison sind her crew. In November at our Club social, Harrison Feldman presented a slide show JR ALASKAN ADVENTURE". The December get-together is our annual Christmas party. This was ueld at the North Liberty Christian Church, arranged by Rose Stockwell. Although the pitch-in supper was probably the high-light for many people, the entertainment was superb, and the general feeling of good will that pervades the atmosphere at this time of year was evident all through the eveniag. At our Social in March, Rich Jordan of the YMCA discussed "PHYSICAL FITNESS FOR .HIKERS". And at our May meeting, a representative of the Department of Natural Resources of Indiana gave a slide presentation of "HOOSIER TRAILS". Our summer picnic in July was scheduled at the park in Danville, but because of heavy rains and flooding conditions, it had to be hurriedly changed at the last minute to Arbuckle Acres park in Brownsburg. This proved to be a fortunate decision, as the shelter house there was great for our group, and we all got to take a short hike around the area . And t here was plenty of room for the games presented by Tom and Vi Hill At our September meeting, whi.ch was a lso the election of officers for the new year, we had the pleasure of listening to Dr. Arthur Mirsky of the Dept of Geology of IUPUI give a very interesting talk and slide show on "THE EXCAVATION OF THE FOSSILS OF A MASTODON IN WESTERN INDIANA" . Dr. Mir sky was in charge of this excavation, and the Mastodon is now on display at the Children's Museum. Last year was an outstanding year for overnights for the club. The officers of the club planned we ll, as the vari ety of activities and entertainment proved. The following resume of the various overnight outings has been adapted from Mary Kidwell's rough draft of her --..collections of the highlights. CAMP RILEY AT BRADFORD WOODS IN OCTOBER The October overnight at Camp Riley was especially nice, with just our group using the area.